General Provident Fund (GPF) – Employee Provident Fund (EPF)
The Provident Fund for Central Government employees is known as General Provident Fund (GPF). The scheme is not available for those who were appointed after 01.01.2014. They come under the newly formed National Pension Scheme.
Salaried employees are eligible for Employee Provident Fund. Under this scheme, 12% of the employee’s basic salary and D.A is deducted for savings. The employer pays the same amount into the employee’s account.
Currently, the salary limits for P.F. deductions have been raised from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 15,000. In other words, if an employee earns Rs. 20,000 per month, then, at most, for Rs. 6,500, he would have had a PF deduction of 12%, i.e., Rs.780. Now, it has been raised to Rs. 1,800. The employer too will pay an equal amount. Of the 12% that the employer pays, 8.33% is taken for the PF pension and the remaining 3.36% goes into the PF account. Until now, a maximum Rs. 541 was being deducted for the pension fund. Now, that has been increased to Rs. 1,249.
The EPFO grants pension to retired employees of the private sector. The Centre has raised the minimum monthly pension issued by EPFO to Rs. 1,000. More than 50 lakh employees will benefit from this.
Source : www.employeesnews.net